Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

I love my iPod shuffle because in 99% of the situations where I listen to music, I want a randomized playlist of songs I’ve chosen beforehand. The shuffle fits that purpose perfectly, and to top everything off, it’s small, light, simple, and inexpensive. I love my iPod shuffle so much that I sold my regular iPod on ebay and have only the shuffle now.

Because of the shuffle’s size and weight, I find myself carrying it around much more than I did my iPod. I do my damnedest to take care of my electronics, to keep them in near-new condition, but I know that one day I’m going to drop or toss my iPod shuffle and it’s going to be damaged. In an attempt to prevent that damage, I started looking at the array of shuffle cases out there. All kinds of designs are available, and I wanted to get the right case to protect my shuffle. I had a preconceived idea of what the case should be, and it took a while to find it.

I didn’t want a case that covers the entire shuffle. I didn’t want a case that weighs as much or more than the shuffle itself. I didn’t want a case with screws or snaps or clips that hold it together. I didn’t want a case that hid my iPod shuffle. I wanted a durable rubber-like casing that fit the outside of my shuffle. I wanted a case that was simple to fit my shuffle into and remove. I wanted something with a loop or hook attached.

Marware had what I wanted.

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I’m proud to announce that yesterday I passed the Mac OS X Server Essentials exam, earning my Apple Certified Technical Coordinator certification. As always, I must include the obligatory Dilbert cartoon.

I had a problem this afternoon with LDAP and SSH on the server that hosts this page, and I’d rather not reveal any more detail than I have to in the interest of security. However, it turned out that something in the LDAP database had become corrupted and prevented LDAP-based users from logging in, even though local netinfo users worked fine.

I backup OpenDirectory on my servers whenever major changes are made. It’s command line intensive, but it’s not difficult. Apple provides the steps to backup and restore this information as part of Workgroup Manager help, but many people aren’t aware of it or aren’t able to find it.

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No operating system is invulnerable. I don’t care what any user of any platform implies or says outright, I’m an IT professional stating what should be an obvious fact. I’m confident that the silent majority of Mac users agree with this premise, regardless of how they may be falsely perceived as inappropriately smug about their immunity from such troubles. The proverbial squeaky wheel minority who don’t comprehend the vulnerability of their computers get the resentful grease of the constantly afflicted, and anyone who participates in that pointless game demonstrates their willful stupidity by definition.

Now that I have that out of the way, I’d like to address the statement released by Symantec yesterday stating that as OS X grows in popularity, it will become a greater target for malware.

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Many people assert that the Mac is secure simply because it’s an obscure platform. Needless to say, this hypothesis is completely untestable and therefore equally as valid or invalid as any other hypotheses concerning Mac security. “Security through obscurity,” these people declare, “is no security at all.” Yet, ironically, they purchase for themselves, and recommend for others, NAT firewalls for their broadband internet connections. NAT is the very definition of security through obscurity. For these hypocrites, security through obscurity is a rhetorical weapon they choose to wield against a platform they irrationally dislike or don’t bother to understand, and at the same time it’s a perfectly acceptable barrier between their computer and the often-menacing outside world.

Be consistent!